Has or does anyone use Ollov shoes? I just got a new client that is interested in some type of rubber/rubber coated shoe for their horses. They do alot of road riding & they want it for shock absorbtion.
How about the Smooth walkers or easy walkers?
Leaning more towards Ollovs though, but never put them on before. Can someone give me some info before i place an order? Thanx!!

Had a horse I worked a year to get some heal heighth on, the owner wanted a pair of them on. He bought'em, I put'em on. I found they were very hard to shape (must have their special tool to shape), nail holes were full of rubber, hard to set the nails in, and after one setting, the heal heighth I got was worn off. I think if you had really good hooves, maybe ok, but I will never set another pair on.

I know of another farrier here who swears by them. So ????

Years ago I tried a set of the ollov shoes on two of the Cleveland Metroparks Ranger horses. The officers who rode the horses with them on, loved the fact that the shoes let the horse walk silently across pavement. Sneaking up on people is fun for cops:). The down side is that on wet grass there was no traction. Imagine cops on horseback ice skating:eek: They were deemed a total failure for police work in the Metroparks.
Jim

I used them on some research horses for OSU that were running on a tread mill every day. I also used them on a bunch of circus horses for a while. All I can tell you is that they are a pain in the rear end to shape. I never had the special tool so I just beat myself to death trying to shape them. I can also tell you that if you let the horse get too far back on the tread mill and it rips the hinds shoes off you can not reset them because it will completely destroy the shoe. I have been using a lot of the Epona shoes and I really like them. They seem to wear well.

Jonathan

JimBondra wrote:

That is kinda funny... hehe

But in all seriousness I've seen a few cops with good horsemanship. Most of them however could use a few more years of lessons